AAPLClimbing In A Down Market Stocks are off in early trading on the weak payroll numbers from Friday. Shares of AAPL opened in the negative on this morning's downgrade (see below), but are currently recovering above the flatline. Apple will report calendar first quarter earnings on Tuesday, April 24 at 5:00pm ET. Investors will be looking for the new iPad adoption; iPhone penetration, especially in China and emerging markets; market share growth of the Mac business; the evolution of Apple TV; and platforms such as Siri, iAd, iBooks and Ping. Shares of Apple trade at 12.2x Enterprise Value / Trailing Twelve Months Free Cash Flow (including long-term marketable securities).

China iOS Users Are Urban(Stenvall Skoeld & Co.)To take the pulse on Chinese consumption, Shanghai-based Stenvall Skoeld & Company decided to calculate the iOS penetration (Apple’s iPhone and iPad) rate in all Chinese provinces and municipalities. They peg the number of devices at 21 million. More than half of all iOS devices in China are located in a handful of provinces and cities. Guangdong province was listed as having the most iOS devices at 13.4%, followed by Beijing with 10.3%. Shanhai, Zhejian and Jiangsu rounded out the top five.

Apple Gets Downgraded, Hats Off To The Analyst (Business Insider)BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk is making a call that's almost never worked out for anyone ever: He has downgraded Apple from BUY to Neutral. The crux of the call that fiscal third quarter will result in a big miss. Other key points include: there will be no Apple TV this year, the iPad isn't that big of a deal. In 2011 the iPad generated less than 50% of iPhone revenue, and that gap will widen and the Chinese market is promising, but ultimately it may be overrated for awhile given the price point of Apple products.

Reporter Given Exclusive Foxconn Tour(Fortune)The China correspondent for American Public Media's Marketplace, Rob Schmitz, was given an exclusive tour inside an iPad factory. Schmitz describes Foxconn's factory city as having the feel of a college campus and he contradicts a New York Times correspondent's claim that workers spend spend long hours each day either standing or perched uncomfortably on stools. At this factory, at least, everybody sits on stools that have backs. But Schmitz also airs some of the workers many complaints. Most notably the fact that wage increases the workers were promised in March, still haven't been paid.

Apple Unlikely To Get Injunction Against Samsung In Appeal(AppleInsider)A U.S. appeals court was unimpressed by Apple's argument that a federal trial judge incorrectly denied the injunction of several Samsung products as part of the companies' ongoing worldwide patent dispute. Judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard arguments regarding a December ruling from District Judge Lucy Koh which denied Apple's request to ban sales of certain Samsung Galaxy devices. Apple lawyer Michael Jacobs asserted that the company does not need to show a causal link between patent infringement and loss of customers in order to obtain an injunction.

Apple Doesn't Have A Disproportionate Impact On The Stock Market, Says Analyst(Business Insider)Most experts are quick to point out that the S&P 500's surge has been largely due to Apple's 56% year-to-date gain. And it's true. The $590 billion company makes up for around 4% of the index, writes JP Morgan's top equity strategist Tom Lee. But this doesn't mean the S&P 500 is worthless. "Apple’s financial market dominance is a misperception," writes Lee. He adds that Apple's share of the index is "well below the weightings of top stocks in other indices, such as Nestle in the SMI index or ENI SpA in the FTSEMIB index."